对于「Father」一词，

Cambridge Dictionary 的定义是：A male parent (父亲，爸爸).

Oxford Dictionary 的定义是：A man in relation to his child or children.

Merriam Webster 的定义是：A man who has begotten a child.

Wiktionary 的定义是：A (generally human) male who begets a child.

其中的 beget 其实也是「成为…的父亲(to be the father of)」的意思，另外 beget 还有更正式的用法表达「引起，导致」，例如，贫穷导致饥饿，而饥饿则导致犯罪。Poverty begets hunger, and hunger begets crime.

维基百科（Wikipedia）中则表述为：

A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations.

这里顺代对比下可能会混淆的几个词：paternal & maternal & parental

· paternal：of or like a father 父亲的；父亲般的

e.g., He's very paternal (= showing the affectionate feelings of a father) with the baby. 他对孩子充满父爱。

· maternal：behaving or feeling in the way that a mother does towards her child, especially in a kind, loving way 母亲的；母亲般的

e.g., maternal instincts 母亲的天性

· parental：relating to parents or to being a parent 父母的

e.g., parental advice/influence 父母的忠告／影响

「Father」在不同词典的解释大致相同，

而在每个人心中的定义则各不相同。

· Father

1. One person who does the work of twenty, and never gives up

2. Tough on the outside, soft inside.

父亲，内柔外刚，永不言弃。

父亲，一个人干的活顶十二个。

· Father

a male parent, protector, provider

父亲，不仅仅是是“父亲”，

是我们的“保护者”，也是我们“任何需求”的“提供者”。

Fun loving, dragon slaying, spider catching,

taxi driving, shoulder ride giving, bad joking,

remote controlling, brave, smart, bank manager

... ... our hero

父亲，是我们的英雄，也是普通人。

· Dad

holder of the wallet, keeper of advice,

dryer of tears, and fixer of all things.

小时候，以为你是超人，长大后才懂你的强撑。

如今，我愿成为你的超人！

谨以此文献给天下所有的父亲，

节日快乐！

Why Dads Are the New Heroes

By MICHAEL KIMMEL

TIME

Thirty years ago, when I first began teaching about masculinity, I'd ask my students who their heroes were. I'd get a predictable response: a near-equal split among athletes (Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan), rock stars (Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson) and movie stars (Clint Eastwood, Arnold Schwarzenegger), with the occasional smattering of public figures, both living and dead (Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Jesus). Heroes were larger than life, embodying those traits that mere mortals could only imagine: being the best in the world at what they do, transcending the immediate moment for the eternal.

/ˌmæskjuˈlɪnəti/ 表示“男子气概；男性；阳性”，英文解释为“the quality of being masculine”举个🌰：

The old ideas of masculinity do not work for most men.

过去对阳刚味的看法已不适用于大多数男人了。

表示“少数，少量”，英文解释为“a small number or amount of something”，如：a smattering of applause 零星的掌声。

Today, that heroic landscape has changed dramatically. Sure, about half the class still lists athletes (LeBron James, Steph Curry), rock stars (Kanye West, Justin Bieber) and movie stars (pick your superhero). And sure, there remains a smattering of public figures (usually President Obama). But the single most common answer today—in a world of political cynicism and a 24/7 news cycle that digs up dirt on anyone who sets foot on the public stage—is “my dad” and “my mom.”

字面意思，把脏东西挖出来，即把别人的丑闻丑事挖出来，英文解释为“to try to discover bad things about someone to stop other people admiring them”；类似的另一个说法，dish作动词，dish the dirt (on sb) 说（某人）的闲话；揭（某人）的短（to tell people unkind or unpleasant things about sb, especially about their private life）。

Celebrities are too distant, and the constant glare of the paparazzi flashbulbs reveals their many flaws. But parents are really there, working hard and sacrificing for their families, emotional advisors, counselors and even friends.

/ˌpæpəˈrætsɪ/ 表示“追逐名人的摄影记者，狗仔队”，英文解释为“photographers who follow famous people in order to take photographs they can sell to newspapers”。

Lest this seem idiosyncratic, it’s confirmed in recent surveys. More than half of young people name a parent. There's a pretty clean gender breakdown: with some crossover, of course, girls name their moms, and boys name their dads.

表示“免得，以免；唯恐，生怕”，英文解释为“in order to make sure that something will not happen；used to show that someone is afraid or worried that a particular thing might happen”举个🌰：

She turned away from the window lest anyone see them.

她转身离开窗边，免得有人看见他们。

I was afraid to open the door lest he should follow me.

我当时害怕打开那个门惟恐他跟踪我。

表示“怪异的；另类的”，英文解释为“If you describe someone's actions or characteristics as idiosyncratic, you mean that they are somewhat unusual.”如：a highly idiosyncratic personality 一种非常另类的个性。

That girls would see their moms as heroes is interesting but not surprising. Many young women say they either text or talk with their moms every day, even after they've gone off to college. They talk about their lives and express their emotions. They often think of their moms as older friends.

That boys name their dads more often than any single public personality is, however, a bit surprising. For one thing, heroes are often more important to boys than they are to girls. Having heroes, role models, ideal visions to aspire to—these are long-standing themes of boyhood.

For decades, many critics complained that fathers were married to their work and absentee landlords at home, more like Don Draper and Mr. Mom. Earlier in the century, critics called fatherhood “a Sunday institution.”

But dads have to “be there” to be seen as a hero to young boys, who contrast their active and involved fathers to the remoteness of the celebrity models. So the fact that children see their fathers as their heroes tells us something not about the paucity of appropriate public role models, but about a richer abundance of time and energy that men are expending to be present in their families.

表示“不足；缺乏”，英文解释为“less than is needed of something”，如：a paucity of information 资料（信息）缺乏。

This shift is borne out in recent studies that find women and men equally committed to balancing work and family life and to being involved parents. And the dads, too, have some role models—other dads who go to extraordinary lengths to fully care for their families. Men like Will Pemble, a California engineer who took his son, Lyle's interest in rollercoasters to new heights—building one for him in their backyard. Or Rocco Forgione and Corey Martin, who completely uprooted their lives when their son was born, so they could be near supportive family and friends. Or Miguel Avila, who logged countless hours of dance lessons because his daughter's most fervent wish was to hip hop dance with her dad at her Quinceanera.

表示“支持；证实”，英文解释为“If someone or something bears a person out or bears out what that person is saying, they support what that person is saying.”举个🌰：

Recent studies have borne out claims that certain perfumes can bring about profound psychological changes.

最近的研究已经证实了某些香水能导致深刻的心理变化的说法。

But many new dads express a more everyday heroism. In fact, it's not even really heroic at all; it's just called life. Men are doing more childcare (though not, alas, not that much more housework) than they have ever done in our history. Most new fathers are even adept with diaper changing!

表示“娴熟的”，英文解释为“Someone who is adept at something can do it skilfully.”举个🌰：

He's usually very adept at keeping his private life out of the media.

他通常十分擅长于使他的私生活远离媒体。

And more than that, men's attitudes have shifted. No more do qualities such as caring and nurturing make a man seem less “manly.” According to a recent survey by DoveMen+Care, on which I consulted, 7 out of 10 American men believe that being a real hero means putting other's needs first.

This is a significant change. For decades, social scientists observed a growing gap between what men would say it means to be a man and what they were actually doing. While they clung fast to traditional definitions of emotionless, dutiful, hardened creatures who never cry and win at all costs, they also were spending more time with their families. This gap has begun to close—because men have begun to shift their attitudes about masculinity. Right alongside that archaic manly stoicism comes being caring, nurturing and being emotionally present.

表示“早已过时的，陈旧的；古代的，早期的”，英文解释为“very old-fashioned；from a much earlier or ancient period of history”，如：archaic art 古代艺术。

表示“对痛苦的默默承受或泰然处之；坚忍（精神）；不以苦乐为意”，英文解释为“patience and calmness when bad things happen to you”。

Of course, caring for others has long been an abstract American masculine virtue: think of manly sacrifice in war movies or the heroic Western loner, who saves the town from the bad guys and then rides off into the sunset. Today, though, fathers are caring in more concrete and less abstract ways. Rising above the mundane, today’s Western hero rides off into the sunset because he needs to be home to share the cooking and washing the dishes before he puts the baby to bed. Now that's everyday heroism!

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